


Meal

by AnselaJonla



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Female Runner Five, Gen, Season/Series 01, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 22:18:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17568974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnselaJonla/pseuds/AnselaJonla
Summary: Five decides to cook a meal for her new friends.





	Meal

Five hummed as she looked at the contents of her own little food stash. Every Runner was allowed to keep a few things from runs, and Five had been cribbing small items of food recently. It wouldn’t be enough to feed the whole of Abel, but it would do for a small meal with a few friends. She just had to convince Janine to let her use the farmhouse kitchen for a little while.

Sweeping the stack of tins, jars and packets into a small tote bag, Five shut her cupboard and set off towards the farmhouse. Janine was in a better mood than usual today, thanks to Seven bringing back some guns he’d found during a supply run, so it was probably the best chance she’d get to ask. Inviting her to the meal would also go some way to sweetening the deal.

Ten minutes later, Five was rummaging through Janine’s cupboards, an order to “try not to make  _ too _ much mess in there” still ringing in her ears. Once she found the pans, wherever Janine had hidden them after Sam’s last disastrous attempt at cooking, she could get started.

Ah. There they were, hidden at the back of the top cupboard where Sam wouldn’t be able to reach. Come to think of it, she wasn’t sure how Janine reached to get them in there. She probably climbed on the counter, like Five currently was. Carefully, of course, to avoid putting her feet on the clean marble.

She tipped her bag out onto the counter. One tin tried to roll off, but she caught it easily. Picking up a second one she juggled them briefly. It felt good to be back in the kitchen. It hadn’t been her  _ favourite _ thing prior to the world going tits up, but she’d unexpectedly missed cooking for herself and a few other people.

An hour later the kitchen was filled with the smells of cooking and the chatter of conversation. Five’s guests had trickled in one by one as she’d reached the finishing stages, and they were seated around the big dining table. Someone had already set it, and the seat at the end opposite Janine was sitting empty for Five’s use.

Five nudged Eugene and Jack apart so she could put the heavy casserole dish onto the trivets in the middle of the large table. The tuna pasta bake wasn’t  _ perfect _ , as she didn’t have any cheese to top it with, but it would have to do, and there was more than enough for the group gathered around the table. A crumble was baking in the oven; she’d had to trade with Daniels in the kitchen to get the butter,, but it was worth it.

Maxine served the pasta bake out, neatly portioning it onto the ten waiting plates. Jack, seated across from her, added salad to each plate. Five didn’t want to know how Sara had convinced Daniels to give her the fixings for ten portions of salad. It probably involved implied threats of violence. Meal served, they bowed their heads for grace. Five wasn’t religious herself, but enough of the table was for the ritual to mean something.

She observed the table as they ate. Janine looked like she wanted to be elsewhere, which Five didn’t think was fair. No one had forced the prickly woman to join them for this meal. Maybe she just didn’t appreciate the story that Sam was telling from the seat to her right, entertaining the whole table with his tale. Maxine, who was the main focus of Sam’s attention, had her face in her hand as she laughed. Sara and Jody were less amused, but they were still engrossed in the story. Jack and Eugene were seated closer together than anyone else at the table, with Jack’s arm slung over Eugene’s shoulder. Evan, seated to Five’s right, was hiding a smile behind his drink. Simon, on her other side, was also smiling, but his feet were hunting for Five’s under the table. She’d already kicked him once, as had Jody, but it hadn’t deterred the outrageous flirt.

It felt nice, sharing this time and space with friends. If she closed her eyes, she could almost pretend that the last few months hadn’t happened, that the world hadn’t ended, that everything outside of these walls was all fine and safe.

She got up to grab the crumble from the oven, but Evan signalled her to sit back down. He portioned the dessert out into the bowls stacked in the corner of the marble counter, and tipped a few tins of custard into a pan to heat up while the filling cooled to something more edible than ‘rhubarb and apple flavour lava’.

It wasn’t quite lava when he brought the bowls to the table, but it was still hot enough to elicit a few gasps of pain. Five chuckled, and blew carefully on her first spoonful to cool it down. A small moan escaped as the tangy-sweet-creamy combination hit her tongue. This was always one of her favourite treats.

No, life wasn’t perfect. It probably wouldn’t ever be like it was. But in these moments, with her friends around, she could pretend that it was okay again.


End file.
